Evening Update 09 Feb

French Riviera local news

Drugs - Customs officials have made a record find of cannabis, when they stopped a truck on the A8 near Antibes this week. A false ceiling in the truck concealed one and a half tons of the drug, with a street value of €11m. The driver, who was travelling from Spain to Italy, will appear in court shortly.

Escape - A couple in their fifties ,had a dramatic escape from a fire in their top floor apartment in Grasse, when the woman used her partners body to slide into the apartment below, before her partner fell four floors to the ground. The severely injured man was airlifted to Pasteur Hospital in Nice where he expected to recover.

Speed - France has won a fight to have speeding drivers from Monaco, face speeding charges and fines in France. Monaco is not in the EU, so is not obliged to allow France access to its vehicle register, but a new bilateral agreement, will see the names of offenders being sent to French authorities, who will then launch legal proceedings.

In a recent report, over half of 206 mainly high-end Monaco registered cars, has broken speed limits in France more than 50 times, with one driver committing 384 individual offences.

Protest - 200 employees of the dermatology research centre in Biot, Galderma, have travelled to Switerland to protest outside the offices of parent company Nestlé. They are protesting against the planned closure of the facility here in September.

Recall - French supermarkets have recalled several products due to potential listeria contamination. The products include batches of ham, tortilla chips, rice and flour, amongst other basics. For a full list, see our website at rivieraradio.mc

Sunshine - The Cote d’Azur was by far the sunniest place on the Mediterranean throughout January. Meteorologists say the city of Nice had 158 hours of sunshine during the month, compared to 149 hours for second place Barcelona or 129 hours for Athens. Dublin, London and Helsinki all had a third of the amount of sunshine experienced here.

BUSINESS

On the markets, UK shares fell this morning, but not as far as declines seen in Asia or the United States, where the Dow Jones fell by more than 1,000 points for the second time this week. At Noon, the FTSE 100 index was down .67%, while European markets have continued to fluxuate.

The owner of the Daily Mirror has agreed to buy the company behind the Daily Express, the Daily Star and magazines such as “OK!”Trinity Mirror is to pay £127m for the publishing assets of Northern & Shell, which is chaired by Richard Desmond, bringing to an end Mr Desmond's 18 years as a UK newspaper owner.

SPORT

Football - The draw for the Coupe de France quarter finals see’s OM Marseilles take on triple defending champions Paris St-Germain in the capital on February 27th. It means the two sides will play each other twice in just three days, as they also face off in a League 1 match on February 25th.

Michael O'Neill's four-year contract extension as Northern Ireland manager has been formally announced. O’Neill recently turned down the chance to succeed Gordon Strachan as Scotland boss, opting instead to accept the longest and most lucrative contract in the Irish Football Association's history. Meanwhile Walter Smith has ruled himself out of the running to become the next Scotland manager. He had previously held the role, and was being considered for a return by the Scottish FA.

Six Nations - Scotland captain John Barclay said last weekend’s naïve performance against Wales was embarrassing, but this weekend’s game against France will be different. He reminded reporters that Wales got comfortably beaten by Ireland in the first weekend of the 2013 Six Nations, but still went on to win the championship.

The Winter Olympics have gotten underway, with hosts South Korea producing a show of unity with neighbours North Korea, where athletes from both countries entered under the same flag during the opening ceremony. The games, set to be the coldest ever, opened in front of an estimated 35,000 spectators inside the Olympic Stadium, who were given seat warmers, wind shields, hats and gloves, to protect themselves from temperatures as low as -6C during the two hour-long ceremony.